Laurie R. Graham is an anthropologist and indigenous rights activist. A Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa, former chair of the American Anthropological Association Human Rights Committee, Cultural Survival Board Member, and chair of the Public Issues and Actions Committee for the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, for some 30 years she has been engaged in collaborative work with Xavante peoples of central Brazil, and more recently with Wayuu of Venezuela and Columbia. Author of numerous books, articles, book chapters, she is also the producer and codirector, with indigenous filmmakers David Hernández Palmar (Wayuu) and Caimi Waissé (Xavante) of the film OWNERS OF THE WATER: Conflict and Collaboration over Rivers (Documentary Educational Resources, 2009). She can be contacted by email at: laura-graham (at) uiowa.edu